Last week there was a flurry of economic reports. The inflation numbers showed contained expectation of inflation and the New construction report was significantly better than expected as supply of homes is constrained. That constraint also boosted prices. Finally, the Industrial Production numbers were good as well.

However, everything is not rosy. First, these numbers were higher than expected and on the plus side of growth not shrinkage, but they also were not strong. Rather they show improvement from an already weak position. Also, the northeast region showed shrinkage in the Philly Fed numbers hinting at a slowdown. Of course how much of this is due to Hurricane Sandy? Shouldn’t that slowdown already be behind us?

For market watchers it is the change we look for and the change is to the positive.